Charlie Ergen’s DISH Network DTH pay-TV operation will offer an OTT service later this year using Disney-owned networks. Ergen told analysts on his Q2 results conference call that the service would appeal to college kids living away from home and young people who do not live at the same place al the time. Ergen said […]
International Launch Services (ILS) could see the troubled Proton rocket system back in use this autumn. ILS is expected to form its own Failure Review Board in September to examine the evidence and assess the results of Russia’s own examination of the probable cause of a catastrophic launch failure which occurred in May. That failure […]
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) had to delay the launch of AsiaSat-8 when an unexplained issue emerged with the rocket’s first stage. That was fixed and it then carried out a flawless launch of its Falcon-9 rocket carrying AsiaSat-8 into a successful geostationary transfer orbit. AsiaSat said the satellite is healthy and sending telemetry signals back […]
International Launch Services (ILS), which handles the sale to ‘western’ clients of rocket launches by the Russian-built Proton system, is laying off staff. ILS has been badly hurt by a series of embarrassing failures by the Proton rocket, in particular the complete loss of a Russian Express-AM4R satellite in May. A failure review board has […]
During Intelsat’s investment call with analysts its CFO Mike McDonnell explained that the satellite operator expected to pay down some $475 million this financial year, an improvement of around $75 million over previous expectations. McDonnell aid that the rise was related to overall improvements in the operator’s EBITDA numbers. “We have had very strong margins […]
London-based satellite operator Inmarsat has announced a link-up with British Airways to be their launch client for an EU-wide ‘Aviation Network Programme’. This will see a Europe-wide passenger ‘in seat’ connectivity service using a new satellite being built on a j-v basis with Arabsat-owned HellasSat, now dubbed Europasat. The official statement reads: “Inmarsat and Hellas-Sat […]
DirecTV‘s CEO Mike White says the broadcaster will be able to supply 4K/Ultra-HD content later this year as ‘on demand’ offerings, and says full 4K transmissions are on track for 2015 or 2016. “I’m certainly excited about [4K]. We expect to be able to do 4K VoD before the end of the year. We’re working […]
Intelsat declared its Q2 revenues and numbers early on August 4th, saying its all-important backlog of contracts in hand had grown by some $200 million to $10.3 billion during the three months to June 30th. However, revenues for the quarter-year totalled $615.7 million ($653.8m) fell back from the same period last year, and many of […]
BBC Monitoring is reporting that Iran’s Intelligence Ministry on August 3 closed a number of foreign-based satellite channels for their [alleged] involvement in “secret and illegal” activity. The BBC report quotes the Ministry which states that the closed channels are based in the UK and the US, but they also operate out of local offices […]
Eutelsat admits it is biding its time and patiently waiting for the day when it can control all of Hispasat, and not just the 33.69 per cent it currently owns. Back in July 2013 Spanish infrastructure giant Abertis bought a 16.42 per cent slice of Hispasat from Spain’s National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA) which […]